I can't believe it but I switched back to cable..and I'm happy.

[Dino]

I don't understand why so many are against putting up an antenna for locals. I think that its awesome. I get more local content OTA in digital, than either my local cable or satellite offer, and guess what...its free and its not overcompressed. I'd rather that D* use their HD bandwidth for stuff that's not available OTA. Most UHF antennas (needed for digital OTA) are small enough that they are no more of an eyesore than the dish itself. OTA broadcasts are far more reliable as well.

Amen!



--Dino

[emtownsend]

I cannot get good reception unless I use a big antenna & I don't want a big antenna on the house. So, I guess it is more asthetics than even geography... Although I live where there are lots of trees and a few mountains close by.

[Sharpie]

I too was contemplating switching back to cable because I was having serious issues with Directv's pixelated, grainy picture. I had D* send out techs to my house twice (D* paid the bill) and one tech said bad receiver so then 2nd tech came out with new receiver and it didn't change a thing. I am talking about picture quality on SD channels because I do not have the HD package. Well, the second tech told me that the picture quality was a problem D* had broadcasting in my area (central Illinois). After the tech left I was to say the least ticked off. Then I thought about maybe it was the tv. I would strongly and I mean STRONGLY recommend that you try tweaking your tv. I have an RPTV and after calibrating and doing convergence the picture quality was dramatic! Now, I am planning to upgrade to HD for the new year. Does D* still have its problems? Yes, but in my case cable is more expensive.

[kryten98371]

I switched from cable to D* almost 10 years ago (or whenever D* became widely available). My biggest problem with cable was that they REQUIRED me to be home whenever I had a problem, even though I didn't have one of their boxes. About twice a year, I would lose my lower channels. I would have to take a days vacation, wait for them to show up, only to find out it was the splitter on the telephone pole that went bad . After several years of the same thing, I switched to D*.

A lot has changed with cable since that time, but that still does not make me want to go back. To top it all off, when they built my house, the cable company put the cable distribution box in the wrong place, so there is no cable to my house. The cable company said that they could run a cable AT MY EXPENSE , and they would have to staple it to the outside of my house (all around the house) . No thanks. I'll stick with D*

[mike123abc]

Cable might be getting me back soon... Dish has about 4 months to shape up or I am shipping out... In about 4 months I will be free of all commitments to Dish.

When I first switched from Time Warner Cable TWC to Dish 4 years ago, Dish was *much* cheaper than TWC. Now TWC is actually cheaper than Dish and when you consider internet service ($15 discount) it is much cheaper.

TWC in my area offers free Discovery-HDT and Fox sports SW in HD. HDNET/Movies INDemandHD1&2 packages are both in the HD pack which is $5. UPN/WB are included saving the superstations package (but I still have value on the supers and will miss them). The movie packages are $7 each and have more channels than each of the packs Dish offers.

Essentially the base price of cable is a lot higher than Dish (78 analog for $44), but all the add ons are a lot less (internet, HD, movie packs) so my total bill will probably be about $35/month less with TWC in my area (assuming I get the HD-DVR which costs $10/month vs Dish free but had to buy a $989 921 grrrrr).

It is a tough choice (and this applies to my cable system since every cable system is different):

Dish Pro: 921 paid for already with a large Disk, Cable HD-DVR has less capacity
Dish Pro: 5 superstations, cable only has 1 UPN and 1 WB
Cable Pro: with cable card ready TV extra TV is $1.75, all the analog TVs are free
Cable Pro: less money, mainly $15 internet, $15 in extra boxes, $5 Hd pack savings, $6 superstations, -$10 rental on DVR, -$1 everything pack equivalent on cable is $1 more
Cable Pro: VOD free with the movie packs and a lot of other networks

If the same is true when my Dish commitments run out in 3.5 months or so, I will be selling all my Dish stuff on Ebay (can get a lot of $10/month rentals).

It is just too much effort right now to have Dish...

[slacker9876]

Wow, this kinda became cableguys.us huh? I am still glad that jl8010 is happy but digital cable isn't (other than premium and PPV) and as far as HD there will be no competitor in any market in April of 2005.

Second E* is and always will be second to D* ... unless international channels are your thing. This is proven by hardware reliability, availability and pricing. Let's also not forget that D* hedges on subs by more than 3.1 million. Voom is in last where they will stay for eternity unless they sellout to someone whom can make them profitable. It is an endless money pit for Cablevision. If you want to talk HD only they are surly the leader, however, with the amount of technical difficulties they are right there with cable.

Just my opinions, no need for flaming. I would love to see anyone compete, because then the consumer is the winner and not the service provider.

[mike123abc]

I think that the point of a lot of posts in this thread is that cable has woke up in many areas and is very competative with DBS. DBS providers are starting to look like cable 10 years ago when they thought their markets were secure and no need to innovate since they had a nice monopoly. DBS providers are starting to act like they have a monopoly on pricing and that they do not have to worry since cable would always be more expensive, have poorer channel selections, and bad quality.

It is time for DBS to innovate again. DIRETV seems to have announced plans for HD LIL and a huge number of HD channels. But, that is a couple of years in the future and now people are suffering with very poor HD PQ. Dish has better PQ since they have better HD technology for the moment, but Dish has not given any indication of what they are planning to combat DIRECTV much less cable. VOOM is trying, but seems to have started with the worst possible cable pricing model combined with the worst possible DBS pricing model. VOOM's new program (the $1 + commit deal) seems to be on the correct track now, perhaps they will be able to build some subs.

It is good for the consumer since it looks like most of the country will eventually have a cable system that can compete with DBS. This will pressure DBS providers into better pricing and service.

[robert luzzi]

digital cable is not true digital, it is digitally compressed analog

[mike123abc]

digital cable is not true digital, it is digitally compressed analog

Which is exactly the same as what Dish/DIRECTV/VOOM do with their standard definition. They receive the same satellite downlink of the channel that a cable does compress the heck out of it, and uplink it to their satellites to be picked up by your receiver. Analog C-Band can look *very* good, better than most DVDs...

Note that a lot of channels are now uplinked digitally. Dish/DIRECTV/VOOM/Cable can decompress and recompress them to whatever bandwidth they want.

[robert luzzi]

mike,, youve said this time and time again.

mike , ANALOG SUCKS

directv pq is the best in sd, read 90% of the posts

my opinion and im entitled to it , analog my butt, if you have an antenna on your house you are living in the last century